Conway man charged in large child pornography website bust, feds say
A Conway man was charged following the bust of the “largest darknet child pornography” website, federal officials say.
Laine Ormand Clark Jr., 27, of Conway, South Carolina, was arrested charged in South Carolina district court for sexual possession of child pornography, according to a Wednesday announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice.
A South Carolina man was indicted for operating the site. In 2018, police arrested the man and seized the servers used to operated the dark web site, according to the DOJ. The data led to the arrests of more than 330 people around the world. There are about 90 individuals in the U.S. charged, including two in South Carolina.
Federal officials stated that through the operation they rescued 23 children in the U.S., Spain and the United Kingdom who were being abused by users of the site.
Users of the website used bitcoin — an online currency — to exchange child pornography, federal officials allege.
In March, the South Carolina Attorney’s General charged Clark with several counts of possession of child pornography. Those cases remain active, according to Horry County court records.
This story was originally published October 16, 2019 at 3:16 PM.
